NEWARK – From a business standpoint, it appears medical marijuana, legal in Ohio this month, will take time to be fully understood and implemented.

“It’ll be a year before the program is truly operational, running at ‘full capacity,’” assessed Andy Joseph, president and CEO of Apeks Supercritical in Johnstown.

Joseph’s company builds the machines that spin the oils out of various things, including marijuana. “We don’t touch the plant material ourselves,” he clarified. “However, our customers use our equipment to do so.”

As for a medical marijuana timeline, Joseph believes it will take a year because it will take that long before “all the hiccups at the testing laboratories and patient access and doctor-patient relationships and licenses and approvals” will be worked out.

Just the oversight of the new law takes three state agencies according to Stephanie Jostomski, the assistant director of communications for the Ohio Department of Commerce. The Ohio Department of Commerce oversees the cultivators, processors and testing labs. The State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy oversees dispensary. And the State Medical Board of Ohio oversees doctors and patients.

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Tim Marsh finishes the wiring on a control panel at Apeks Supercritical in Johnstown, Ohio.(Photo11: Jessica Phelps/The Advocate)

“It’s all going to have to get clarified at some point,” agreed Caroline Fraker, vice president of compliance and chief privacy officer at MedBen, a Newark-based company with 145 employees who offer a full spectrum of group health care benefit services.

That said, Fraker continued, “I don’t think it matters whether it’s today, or five months after September, nothing’s going to change for us as an employer. If someone tests positive for marijuana, that’s still a ding.”

“I don’t know there’s going to be this huge change of employment practices and drug testing policies,” she added. “It’s my understanding those can all stay in place the way they are because of the federal issue.”

Therein lies a sizeable controversial area. At issue is the fact medical marijuana is legal in Ohio, but on a federal level marijuana is still illegal.

“Just because you get a medical marijuana card,” Fraker explained, “from an employment perspective, I don’t have to accommodate it because under federal law it’s illegal.”

Joseph, however, has a very different perspective.

“Let’s look at what our [Ohio] legislature has given us an opportunity to do,” he said, “which is provide an alternative therapy for things like pain management and epilepsy and a whole slew of problems.”

“It would be a huge disservice to the patients of the state of Ohio,” Joseph added, “who are employees of these companies, who blanketly put no medical marijuana policies in place, just because they can. It’s shortsighted, and it’s unfair to the patients who ultimately need it.”

That’s just one issue. There are others, each seemingly as debatable as the next. But for Fraker, the bottom line is, “Alcohol is legal, but I would never let somebody be inebriated at work. Because you have a medical marijuana card, you can be high at work. That’s never going to happen.”

To Joseph, however, “This isn’t any different than any other prescription medication. You have to address it the same way you would any other prescription medication.”

“Here’s the reality,” he added. “Marijuana is not the boogey man. It’s not something to be afraid of. It’s not something that will make people go crazy. Let’s get out of reefer madness.”

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Alivia Didion works on building a co2 compressor at Apeks Supercritical in Johnstown, Ohio. (Photo11: Jessica Phelps/The Advocate)

So medical marijuana is off to a busy, thought-provoking, debate-inducing start. Now, all that’s needed is product, according to Tessie Pollock, director of communications for the State Medical Board of Ohio.

“Where our timeline is different than September 8th is because of plant growth,” she said. “As soon as plants are in the ground, we’ll have a better idea of when product will be on the shelf. The dispensaries exist, the physicians are there, the patient registry is there, it’s just the growth time for the plants.”